11 Surprising Habits Of Powerful People

Power gets a bad rap, but only because people pursue it for the wrong reasons. When power is pursued for the right reasons, it can be a tremendous force for good.

Niccolo Machiavelli spread the belief that people can only become powerful by exploiting the worst aspects of human nature. One of this teachings was, "A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests." Machiavelli was essentially saying that you're an idiot if you keep your promises or stick to your values when you'd benefit more by breaking them.

Not only did we hear it from Machiavelli, but also from plenty of voices in our own time, such as Robert Greene, who said, "The key to power is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations." It's no wonder so many people think that the only way to get power is to be a jerk.

Fortunately, Machiavelli and Greene had something in common: They were both wrong. Recent research from UC Berkeley shows that when it comes to power, nice guys finish first. The researchers found that the most powerful people (according to ratings from their peers) were those who were the most considerate and outgoing. They also found that those who were the most Machiavellian -- using things like gossip and manipulation to gain power -- were quickly identified and isolated and ended up with no power at all.

Studies like these are rehabilitating power's bad rap. Power isn't inherently evil, and it isn't inherently bad to seek power. Without power, you can't accomplish anything, good or evil. Even those who want nothing more than to make the world a better place, can't do so without exerting the influence of personal power. It's the abuse of power and the underhanded things people do to achieve it that cause problems.

People who earn and use power wisely have a profound impact on everyone they encounter. Yet, they achieve this power only because they exert so much influence inside, on themselves. We see only their outside; we see them innovate, speak their mind, and propel themselves forward toward bigger and better things. Yet, we're missing the best part. The confidence and wherewithal that make their influence possible are earned.

And while what people are influenced by changes with the season, the unique habits of powerful people remain constant. Their focused pursuit of excellence is driven by eleven habits, which you can emulate and absorb until your power and influence expand:

1. They don't wait for a title to lead. It's important not to confuse power with authority. The right title can give you authority, but it can't give you power. On the other hand, you don't need a title to be powerful. You can lead without being a boss and you can have a powerful influence upon your workplace and community without a title.

2. They're graciously disruptive. Powerful people are never satisfied with the status quo. They're the ones who constantly ask, "What if?" and "Why not?" They're not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom, and they don't disrupt things for the sake of being disruptive; they do so to make things better.

3. They think for themselves. Powerful people aren't buffeted by the latest trend or by public opinion. They form their opinions carefully, based on the facts. They're more than willing to change their mind when the facts support it, but they aren't influenced by what other people think, only by what they know.

4. They focus only on what really matters. Powerful people aren't distracted by trivialities. They're able to cut through the static and clutter, focus on what matters, and point it out to everyone else. They speak only when they have something important to say, and they never bore people with idle banter.

5. They master conflict. People tend to err on one of two extremes when it comes to conflict: some are passive and avoid conflict altogether, while others seek out conflict aggressively, thinking that this will make them powerful. People who master conflict know how to approach it directly and assertively, yet constructively. In essence, they practice emotional intelligence. Truly powerful people do not react emotionally and defensively to dissenting opinions -- they welcome them. They're humble enough to know that they don't know everything and that someone else might see something they missed. And if that person is right, they embrace the idea wholeheartedly, because they care more about the end result than being right.

6. They inspire conversation. When powerful people speak, their words spread like ripples in a pond. Influencers inspire everyone around them to explore new ideas and to think differently about their work.

7. They know their strengths and weaknesses. People who get seduced by power and, therefore, start abusing it are often blind to their own weaknesses. To become truly powerful, you have to see yourself as you really are and to position yourself to use your strengths for the greater good. That means taking a clear-eyed look at your strengths and your weaknesses and owning them both completely.

8. They grow and leverage their networks. Those who grow power the Machiavellian way don't bother with people who aren't useful to them. People see this coming a mile away, and it doesn't win any friends. Truly powerful people know how to make lasting connections. Not only do they know a lot of people, they get to know their connections' connections. More importantly, they add value to everyone in their network. They share advice and know how, and they make connections between people who should get to know each other.

9. They ask for help when they need it. It's easy to mistakenly assume that powerful people never ask for help from anybody. Asking for help when you don't know the answer or can't do it all by yourself is not a sign of weakness; it's a sign of strength. It sends the message that you're not so insecure as to put your ego above the mission. It takes a tremendous amount of confidence and humility to admit that you need assistance, and asking for assistance is critical, because there's nothing worse than trucking down the wrong path when you're too embarrassed or proud to admit that you don't know what you're doing.

10. They believe. Powerful people always expect the best. They believe in their own power to achieve their dreams, and they believe that others share that same power. They believe that nothing is out of reach and that belief inspires those around them to stretch for their own goals. They firmly believe that one person can change the world.

11. They do it now. Way back in 1894, Orison Swett Marden made an important point: "Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seek common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities. Strong men make them." If you put off growing your power until the right opportunity comes along, it's never going to happen. Powerful people know that developing power is a lot like lifting weights or running a 5K. The only way to strengthen those muscles is by using them, so stop making excuses and just start. You know what you believe in, you know who you are, and you know what you want to become, so act like it. Yes, it will be uncomfortable at times, and yes, some people will tell you you're doing it wrong, but the only way to achieve power and use it for good is to get out there and do it.

Bringing It All Together

Boris Yeltsin once said, "You can make a throne of bayonets, but you can't sit on it for very long." Forget everything you've heard about power, because, in the end, the nice guys really do win. Whether you call it power or influence, it's okay to want it and it's okay to have it. You just have to pursue it and use it with integrity.

Have you seen people abuse power? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Now You Can Do Your Thrift Shopping Online, And It's About Time

This article is part of HuffPost’s “Reclaim” campaign, an ongoing project spotlighting the world’s waste crisis and how we can begin to solve it.

A slew of successful online secondhand stores has made it easier than ever for consumers to buy and sell old clothing.

The leaders of the upstart industry tout the environmental benefits of this new kind of thrift shopping experience. But will it be enough to meaningfully reduce the staggering amount of textiles pouring into our landfills every year, or is it just a way for savvy shoppers to ease their guilty consciences about the waste they produce?

For now, clothing resale is too small-scale to make a dent in landfill waste. And even if it does, it should not be confused for an environmental panacea. But if it forces us to question the way we shop and rethink the way we get rid of our old stuff, it’s a step in the right direction. 

David Goldman/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Shoppers at an H&M store in Atlanta. H&M is one of the big retailers known for "fast fashion," constantly introducing new styles at low prices.

“Even if we manage to come up with the ultimate technology solution, the positive impact of all of that is still outweighed by the amount that we produce and consume,” said Renée Cuoco, manager of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion. “We need a whole scope of initiatives.”

For a variety of reasons, consumers in the developed world often have more clothing than they know what to do with. The rise of “fast fashion,” in which big retailers like H&M introduce new styles more frequently and at low prices, has accelerated this trend.

The short shelf life of many garments has major implications for the environment.

Americans threw away 15.1 million tons of clothing in 2013, with 12.8 million tons of it ending up in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Landfills are a top generator of methane gas, which contributes disproportionately to climate change.

Methane made up 11 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2014, according to the EPA. But methane traps warming in the atmosphere far more effectively than other GHGs, giving the gas a “global warming potential” that the federal environmental watchdog says is 25 times that of carbon dioxide.

A New Model For Thrift Shopping

Digital secondhand clothing and consignment stores did not arise to save unwanted clothing from landfills ― and the industry does not claim otherwise.

But San Francisco-based ThredUP, which may be the largest online outfit for secondhand clothing, markets the positive environmental impact of using its services.

“If 1 in 100 American households shopped resale, it would save over 1.1 billion pounds of CO2 emissions every year,” the company’s annual resale report notes.

There is no concrete data on how much ThredUP and comparable services like eBay Valet and Poshmark have actually reduced the amount of clothing sent to landfills.

By effectively “Uber-izing” the thrift store experience, however, these outfits enable people who might not otherwise want to deal with the hassle of brick-and-mortar thrift stores to clean out their closets without leaving the house.

If the model becomes very lucrative, it can change the market.Tasha Lewis, Cornell University

To send clothing to ThredUP, for example, all consumers need to do is order a “clean out kit” (essentially a free bag), fill it with unwanted clothes and send it to the company. The company only resells clothing and accessories that are “like new,” so it rejects about 60 percent of what it receives and offers to return the rest to senders or give it to other thrift shops or clothing recycling entities.

Once ThredUP has inspected an item and decided it is suitable for resale, it professionally photographs it and lists it on the site. The price is based on quality, original retail price and other factors.

For items that sell for under $60, ThredUP pays sellers between 5 and 40 percent of the list price up front, with the cheapest items offering the smallest payout.

ThredUP has a consignment system for items it lists for $60 or more, offering as much as 80 percent to consigners once the company succeeds in reselling an item. (The shipping and handling costs of sending the ThredUP “clean out kit” are deducted from whatever payout the company provides.)

ThredUP

ThredUP allows consumers to shop for high-quality secondhand clothing without some of the hassles of traditional thrift stores.

ThredUP’s business is booming: It has resold over 10 million items and at least doubled its revenue every year for the past several years, according to Chief Marketing Officer Anthony Marino.

That can only have a positive impact on the U.S.’s landfill waste problem.

But there is a catch. Although the company’s selectivity is the formula for its successful business model, it demonstrates how difficult it is for secondhand clothing sites to turn online clothing resale into a profitable business.

ThredUP does not buy or sell men’s clothing, serving women and children only. The company told HuffPost it focuses on women because men’s clothing makes up a much smaller share of the resale market.

Until the economics of the business allow online secondhand shops to make up a bigger share of clothing sales, there are limits to their impact on waste.

“If the model becomes very lucrative, it can change the market,” said Tasha Lewis, a professor specializing in fashion sustainability at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology. “The only obstacle is the scale of these programs, and they are constrained by quality, size and color of the things they get.”

More Innovations, Persistent Challenges

Meanwhile, some brick-and-mortar retailers are trying to do their part to address waste with in-store recycling programs. Patagonia invites shoppers to return old clothing and sells used products on-site.

H&M also allows shoppers to return worn clothing to stores, where the retailer sorts it for resale or recycling.

One risk, however, is that clothing that gets offloaded to local thrift stores by major retailers or higher-end online secondhand sites will sit idly on shelves, too, and eventually end up in a landfill anyway. Unwanted clothing can also end up getting exported to developing countries, where it risks undermining local textile industries.

A way around that problem would be ensuring that clothing is made from recyclable material. For example, cotton and polyester blends, commonly used in items like T-shirts, are impossible to recycle.

Last March, H&M and Kering, the parent company of Gucci and other luxury brands, announced a partnership with technology startup Worn Again that aims to speed up that process. The companies will be “monitoring the testing” of technology developed by Worn Again that separates fibers and removes dyes and other chemicals that prevent textile recycling.

Some popular styles are impervious to this kind of innovation. Leather, a material with one of the most opaque supply chains, is not recyclable. (Though it is compostable in some circumstances.) Making it more sustainable, according to Cuoco, would likely mean phasing it out of our wardrobes altogether ― which, it’s safe to say, is not going to happen anytime soon.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Discarded clothing contributes to landfill waste -- which emits methane, a greenhouse gas that's especially effective at trapping heat.

Even if all clothing becomes recyclable, there are limits to the environmental benefits of technological innovations.

It’s possible that after consumers clear their closets by reselling or recycling clothing, they’ll feel freer to buy more brand-new clothing, lessening the effect of the overall recycling trend.

Advanced recycling technology also requires energy and resource expenditures, which would have to be weighed against emissions savings from reducing landfill waste.

And, of course, landfill waste is just one way the ever-growing clothing industry affects the environment. Among other things, the energy expenditures from the agriculture and transportation needed to make and sell clothes will persist regardless of how many garments are saved from landfills.

Deeper change requires a cultural shift in the developed world, in which producers slow down fashion cycles and consumers demand higher-quality clothing that lasts longer, rather than just the newest styles at an affordable price.

“We need to be asking more insightful questions about how we purchase and consume,” Cuoco said. “If we relinquish too much responsibility from ourselves as consumers, that’s really dangerous.”

This article has been updated with additional information about post-consumer alternatives for leather products.

9 Cartoons To Help You Avoid Any Actual Work

If you want to continue avoiding any actual work, follow the sage advice in these nine cartoons.

#1 Got a lot of email? Try this is revolutionary strategy.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#2 Email reminders are a great way to surprise yourself.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#3 It’s important you’re comfortable at work, no matter how ridiculous you look.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#4 Open office layouts are a great way to increase collaboration and misery.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#5 In the corporate world, you learn to live with regret.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#6 Boost team morale with a team building event.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#7 Be realistic about your productivity goals. 

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#8 Sometimes to get more productive you have to waste time trying to get more productive.

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

#9 Get your morning meetings off to a great start. 

Sarah Cooper / TheCooperReview.com  

I post new humor every week! Sign up for my free email newsletter to get updates.

Sarah Cooper is a writer, comedian and creator of TheCooperReview.com. Her first book, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings comes out October 4th.

Once The Domain Of Millennials, Uber And Lyft Are Now Pursuing Seniors

Ride-hailing services want to make sure Grandma Betty can get to bridge club just as easily as her 22-year-old grandson travels to and from ... whatever it is young folks are doing these days.

Once the domain of 20-somethings who might have a drink or two and need a safe ride home, companies like Lyft and Uber have set their sights on a different age range entirely: senior citizens.

Lyft announced Tuesday it has partnered with GreatCall, a mobile phone company that specializes in providing cell phones to seniors, to extend its ride-hailing services to those who ― like the elderly ― may not have a smartphone, much less want to learn how to use an app on one to hail a ride.

Instead of an app, GreatCall customers dial “0” to talk to an operator, who can provide a cost estimate and book a ride. The fare is tacked onto the customer’s monthly cell phone bill.

The L.A. Times notes Uber struck up a similar arrangement with a company called 24Hr HomeCare last week.

Several third-party ride-hailing services also specialize in giving lifts to older adults who don’t have smartphones, including GoGoGrandparent, a newer entrant that adds additional features like meal and grocery delivery options.

As people age, one thing to go is the ability to drive. That means losing your freedom to get to doctor’s appointments and to stay social with friends.

This is far from either company’s first foray into the senior market, which, judging by recent moves from both Uber and Lyft, seems ripe for disruption.

And it couldn’t come at a better time. The first wave of the so-called “baby boomer” generation turned 65 in 2011, with the number of Americans aged 65 and older projected to keep growing until 2030, when it’s expected to peak at around 71 million people.

Earlier this year, both Uber and Lyft began offering non-emergency medical transport services, specifically targeting customers whose rides would be reimbursed by Medicaid. 

And in the Denver suburb of Centennial, where 15 years from now at least 30 percent of the population is projected to be over the age of 65, city officials are exploring replacing current dial-a-ride services with less expensive, more efficient rides via Lyft.

Starting Aug. 17, the city has embarked on a first-of-its-kind, six-month long pilot project, paying for Lyft rides to and from the area’s major light-rail station in a bid to increase mobility.

“We call Centennial the Silver Tsunami,” Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon told The Atlantic blog CityLab. “As people age, one thing to go is the ability to drive. That means losing your freedom to get to doctor’s appointments and to stay social with friends. We really want to help keep the people who started Centennial engaged in it.”

Note: The Huffington Post’s editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington is a member of Uber’s board of directors and has recused herself from any involvement in the site’s coverage of the company.

Food Policy Is Hitting The Big Time Aboard Summit at Sea

Food policy has gone mainstream. I know this because Summit at Sea 2016--a swanky three-day conference held on a cruise ship that hosts likes of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, skateboarder Tony Hawk and acclaimed poet Sonia Sanchez--is incorporating an entire series of talks under the umbrella "Corn and Soy," curated by food activist Ellen Gustafson. This is a big deal.

Rosenheim Advisors called 2015 "piping hot" for global food tech and food media businesses, citing 142 private company fundings totaling over $2.3 billion, just in the United States. The year prior, in fact, was even bigger: 157 deals raising $2.6 billion in the U.S. And many of these bustling businesses are headed up by young Millennial entrepreneurs, attempting to capitalize on the foodie craze.

As such, it's not just food nerds like myself who are interested in the issues surrounding farms, oceans and diners these days. Businesspeople and techies are finding relevance in it as well.

"I want to see this incredible community of people coming up in their careers, or already well-situated in their careers, deeply understand their roles in solving big problems of the world. And then I want to see them act on it," Gustafson, Principal at Summit Series and Co-Director of the Summit Institute, emphatically expressed over the phone. She sees the "Corn and Soy" talks as an opportunity to bring food issues to the forefront during an otherwise non-foodie gathering.

Summit was founded in 2008 by Millennial cohort Brett Leve, Jeremy Schwartz, Elliott Bisnow and Jeff Rosenthal to bring together academics, artists and entrepreneurs in immersive experiences to converse, connect and create. In Summit's short lifetime, they've hosted the likes of Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, Martha Stewart and John Legend, and sponsored conversations on topics as varied as poverty, lucid dreaming and rock climbing. The Summit founders have pushed the limits of what's possible: They purchased a mountain in Utah to build the town of their dreams; hosted a long-table dinner in the fields of Tulum; and take a 1,069-foot ship of inquisitive minds out to a private island in the Bahamas each year via Summit at Sea.

Though Summit events usually attract a business, tech and arts-focused crowd, this winter's Summit at Sea is putting food front and center. Nestled into presentations on Asian markets, the ultimate hackers and ground-up innovators will be talks on the microbiome and sugar.

"The opportunity to transform the food model in the country has never been more ripe, pun intended," Summit co-founder Jeff Rosenthal told me. "From subsidy reform, farming technology, new growing techniques, the conversations around organics, GMO's, and the overwhelming impact and decisions we make about our diet have on the environment."

The team is also carrying the food emphasis through to the kitchen, appointing 'Wichcraft co-founder Jeffrey Zurofsky as executive director of culinary operations, or as he calls himself, "Nourisher in Chief," of Summit at Sea 2016. Zurofsky is working alongside executive chef Harutaka Kishi to thread the themes of food policy throughout every meal.

"We're using ingredient sourcing to tell a story," Zurofsky explains, so that "others who don't usually think about this stuff are thinking about it." For example, the menu will feature trash fish from Sea to Table with certified traceability by Monterey Bay. Kelp will be provided by Green Wave. "Everyone has been fetishizing kelp recently--the umami flavors and sustainability aspects."

"Dinners will be opportunities to produce even more content and discussion," says Zurofsky.

To keep the intellectual discourse and excitement going around the clock, Zurofsky and Kishi are also masterminding a popup culinary series that will start at midnight every night and last until sunrise.

"Just when you're least expecting it, something fun is going to come out and surprise you. It will make you think, 'Wow, there wasn't an hour where someone wasn't thinking about engaging me with food, my mind, my body,'" Zurofsky expressed.

The goal of Summit, Rosenthal explains, is to "keep it surreal. Do things that are a bit beyond people's expectations."

The surreality is part fun yet also a catalyst to creating unlikely relationships and sparking outlandish ideas. The environment is temporary, unique and entirely detached from participants' ordinary lives: There's no cell service. You're not quite sure of where you are. Questlove can show up to play a set at 4 A.M. and then you'll spot a whale shark off the deck an hour later (as Zurofsky recounts of his first year attending Summit at Sea). The Summit team hopes to create lasting bonds between thought-leaders who wouldn't, under normal circumstances, have the chance to converse, dine and imagine together. And this year's food curriculum creates all new potential for food-centric ideation and solutions.

"The Summit community is multidisciplinary," says Zurofsky. "I've never seen a group of people more focused on optimization and engaged and interested in experimenting with art and tech and beyond. I can't wait to see what they do with the new food programming."

And I can't either.

I will be attending Summit at Sea. Stay tuned for updates, come November, by following me on Twitter @EveTurowPaul.

Do You Really Need an MBA to Succeed in the Tech World?

Are MBAs going to become more or less useful in the tech and startup industry in the next ten years? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Adam Enbar, Co-Founder & CEO, Flatiron School, on Quora.

MBA skills are becoming increasingly more important, but getting an actual MBA may not be the best way to get those skills anymore.

There are actually two things that I want to address:

1. How important are the skills you learn in an MBA?
2. Is an MBA the best way to acquire those skills?

How important are the skills you learn in an MBA for the tech and startup industry?

As a startup founder myself, I strongly believe that the type of skills you're expected to gain through an MBA (sales, marketing, strategy, leadership) remain critically important to the tech and startup industry. In fact, these skills may be more important than ever. Today, most tech startups are no longer successful because of pure technological innovation, with the exception of outliers like TESLA or Oculus. They are successful because of the way they leverage technology to upend business models. Just look at Airbnb or Dollar Shave Club or Warby Parker: they are disrupting their respective industries by using existing technology in a smart and innovative way to solve a specific need for their customers.

The tech industry needs more business leaders who not only understand technology (even if they're not technologists themselves), but can also spot opportunities to apply that technology in new ways to improve business models. Then comes the really hard part of developing sales and marketing programs: acquiring new users and customers. Even with the greatest engineering team in the world, if a company doesn't have enough customers or can't differentiate their product among competitors who are all offering the same thing, it will have a hard time staying afloat.

Is an MBA the best way to acquire those skills?

Like many degree programs, an MBA has (or should have) two main benefits:

1. Skills that will help you to be successful on the job in the future (which I touched on above)
2. Access to the school's network and brand

The second benefit only really applies to a subset of elite MBA programs, though I'd argue that pedigree is generally becoming less of a differentiating factor in the workplace. Plus, the Internet now enables so many new and powerful ways to network in business, such as accelerator programs like Y Combinator, which arguably rival the networks of some of the best MBA programs.

Having worked with hundreds of hiring partners at Flatiron School, I know that what really matters to employers is whether you have the skills to succeed in a role - regardless of whether those skills are acquired on the job, through traditional higher education or via an accelerated type of education like a bootcamp.

The challenge then becomes assessing those skills. For technical roles, such as the ones we prepare students for at Flatiron School, they're fairly straightforward to evaluate (although there's still room for improvement in the hiring process for developers). We know our Full Stack Web Developer program prepares grads to be operational as junior developers on day one. But for roles in sales or marketing, it's much harder to assess someone's skills, and that's why some employers still rely on a degree or credential to demonstrate that a candidate has, at the very least, completed coursework that's relevant to the job.

But is that a good enough reason for you to invest a lot of time and money into an MBA? Is it the most efficient way to acquire relevant business skills? I'm not sure. In fact, based on my experience running Flatiron School and helping hundreds of grads find jobs, my gut tells me no, it's not.

That's not to say an MBA is not the right option for some people (I went into a huge amount of debt for my MBA and can confidently say it was more than worth it). Where we go wrong in education is assuming that there's only one path to success. In my experience, a one-size-fits-all approach in education is rarely the answer. I imagine new types of business training programs will begin to emerge (if they haven't already) that will give people more options when deciding where to invest their time and money.

This question originally appeared on Quora. - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

More questions:​

• Programming Bootcamps: What's the future of the coding bootcamp industry?
• Capitalism: Do coding bootcamps have a problem of being too focused on making money?
• Venture Capital: What should startup founders who want to go VC know as they take steps to that end?

5 Reasons To Choose Private Equity Real Estate Funds

Sell everything. That's what famed investors such as George Soros, Carl Icahn, Jeff Gundlach, Bill Gross and Stan Druckenmiller have been preaching about equities since May, noted Barrons this August--at the same time CBOE's Volatility Index fell to its lowest level in two years.

Despite the fact that the 2016 S&P 500 is up 5.9 percent on a price basis in the face of uncertain times (think Brexit, the U.S. elections, the record low yields of the U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note and more), the stock market can't and won't go up forever. Bad news drives interest rates lower, and lower rates support loftier valuations, said Barrons.

Bonds are equally risky. In a weak business climate, the fixed yields of bonds look more attractive as stock prices fall. But that traditionally inverse relationship between stocks and bonds has broken down in the last two decades, noted The Wall Street Journal.

A 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report suggests the combination of higher interest rates, lower economic growth and weak corporate profits is here to stay - and a portfolio made up only of stocks and bonds will generate lower returns for years to come.

Commercial real estate has the potential to offer long-term returns that are both healthy and stable. Most significantly, when added to a traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds, this asset class can decrease volatility and increase returns. But it's important to understand the different types of real estate investments you can make, and each one's potential impact on your portfolio.

For instance, an investor recently asked us why buy into our Fund III at Origin Investments instead of a successful publicly traded REIT such as Realty Income Corp. (O-NYSE)? Both products boast similar target returns, and the REIT has a lot going for it. This includes:

• A proven long-term record of 14 percent returns (compared to Origin's Fund III's targeted return of 17-19 percent), with a current dividend yield of 3.76 percent;
• Dividends that have increased over time; and
• Liquidity, since the REIT is traded on an exchange and can be sold like any other stock.

In truth, when it comes to deciding between a publicly traded REIT and a private equity real estate fund, it isn't an "either-or" proposition but rather an "and" proposition; you don't necessarily have to choose between the two. Here's why, along with four other compelling reasons to invest in private equity real estate funds:

1.Unlike REITs, private equity real estate isn't tied to stock market fluctuations.
While public real estate products can be lucrative investments, they are highly correlated to the stock market. That means they rise and fall based on what's happening in the economy, and their values can be impacted by events that have nothing to do with real estate fundamentals. Because of this, adding publicly traded REITs alone will not necessarily improve your portfolio's risk-adjusted returns.

2.Public equity real estate funds achieve different investing goals.
When evaluating a potential investment, it important to look at alpha and beta. Beta measures the volatility of a fund relative to the market by gauging how much the fund's returns move up or down given the gains or losses of its benchmark market index. Alpha is the difference between a fund's expected returns based on its beta and its actual returns, and it is sometimes interpreted as the value that a portfolio manager adds, notes Morningstar.

Public REITs are a good example of the difference between alpha and beta.

With pubic REITs you are essentially buying beta, while a private equity real estate fund seeks to achieve alpha--and does with strategic business plans for properties and skilled asset managers. Origin's goal is to outperform the market on a risk-adjusted basis and achieve returns well above the index. We focus on finding high quality, underperforming commercial real estate properties that can be turned around. Our philosophy is that this is the best way to protect the downside while maximizing the upside of each deal.

3. REITs are a volatile asset class.
When the economy tanks, REITs can get hit hard. "In 2007 and 2008, REITs lost 15.7 percent and 37.7 percent, respectively," the Wall Street Journal noted recently. Also, since 2000, REITs "are second only to emerging-market stocks as the most volatile asset class. And with interest rates likely to rise, the next few years could be tough," especially for investors buying REITs now, concluded the WSJ.

4. Funds minimize risk exposure.
Our private equity funds are one of the most effective options for investors because they are a diversified investment. At Origin, each of the properties in a fund are run as a separate businesses. So if one underperforms it doesn't impact the others. A deal by deal investment strategy does not offer this same benefit.

To better gauge how well a fund will perform, it also helps to look at a company's other products. In our case, our earlier Funds I and II had projected returns of 17-19 percent, however Fund I is on track to generate a 28 percent net return and Fund II is on track to deliver a 26 percent return. Preqin, an industry leader that tracks performance of private equity fund managers, ranked these two funds in the top quartile as of June 2016.

5. Consider the manager's alignment of interests.
According to Towers Watson, a leading global advisory company, co-investment is the most effective way to align the interests of a manager and investors. We started Origin to invest our own capital, and maximizing investment performance remains our primary goal. We continue to keep our skin in the game with Fund III by committing $10 million of our personal resources.

If private equity real estate isn't part of your portfolio, it needs to be; asset allocation is a large determinant of investment success. Private real estate has low correlation to other asset classes, high expected returns and low volatility. That makes it a trifecta, since most asset classes only have one or two of these qualities.